“Millian!” The whisper echoed in my ears, making me jump. The room was empty, which meant one thing.

“Stop doing that, Angeli!” I sent back. “You want me to get caught?”

“No, but listen,” the voice whispered in my ear again. I did my best not to react as one of the Healers passed by the door of the room. Gritting my teeth, I turned back to the bed and ripped the sheets off, stuffing them in the basket by the door. Holding my breath, I turned to the bedpan. With any luck, it would be empty.

Of course it wasn’t.

“Okay, so, I’m working with the horses, right?” Angeli’s voice continued. I hoped she had remembered to limit her voice to my ears this time. I didn’t want people to think I was talking to myself. Again. Especially around here, that was dangerous.

“And?” I replied while dumping the contents of the bedpan into a large bucket. I turned away to keep from gagging. That done, I rinsed the bedpan with a bit of water from another bucket and slid it back under the bed.

This was my life.

“Well, they’re just so cute!” Angeli continued, oblivious to what I was doing. “They have these little pointy ears, and-”

“Wait, stop,” I answered while gathering up the buckets and basket to move to the next room. “You opened your mind to the Madness, risking your own sanity and my discovery by the Quis, to tell me that the horses are cute?”

“Yeah!”

“You don’t even work with the horses! You clean up after them!”

“They’re still cute, though.”

I rolled my eyes and didn’t reply.

Another voice from the doorway caused me to jump. “And what was that look for?” it said.

“Oh – nothing,” I said, regaining my composure. The voice belonged to Seraine, one of the Healers that worked at the clinic.

“Come now, Millian,” Seraine said, coming into the room. “We both know you despise this work. You can admit it.”

“You’re not going to goad me again,” I said with gritted teeth. “Don’t you have patients to attend to?”

“That’s no way to talk to your employer. Especially one who was nice enough to take you in when nobody else wanted you.”

I glared, but wisely held my tongue as I finished gathering up my supplies to move to the next room. Seraine still blocked the door.

“May I continue?” I said in my best fake-sweet voice.

Seraine’s scowl deepened.

“You’re not in school anymore.” she said. “Sooner or later you’re going to have to realize that popularity means nothing in the real world.”

“Yes, Seraine.”

I stood and endured the woman’s glare. After a moment, she stepped aside and I continued past to the next room.

I allowed myself a small grin of victory once I was out of her sight. Whatever she might think, the real world wasn’t so different from school. I had tangled with girls like her before, and I always came out on top.

“Hey, Angeli.” I sent the message to my friend’s ears alone. “Let’s go out tonight. I need to let off some steam.”

“Yeah!” she replied. “There’s this new club out east that I’ve been wanting to check out.”

***Angeli***

I arrived at the club shortly after Millian. Fortunately, she was easy to find even without our abilities. All I had to do was look for the crowd of boys – she’d be at the center.

Sure enough, when I managed to shoulder my way through the press of bodies, I saw Millian in the center, preening under the attention. Of course I exaggerate, but Millian’s always been able to attract enough attention that neither of us have ever had to pay for a drink.

We had a great time that night – what I remember of it, anyway. The drinks were strong, the dancing was wild, and the music was loud – The club had certainly spared no expense, though I’m not sure they even had a vocalist. If they did, I couldn’t hear her over the beat. I think they had hired an Illusionist to enhance the drums, ’cause I could feel it in my chest. If Millian had been willing to go to the Asylum, we could have jobs like that.

At the end of the night, we made our way home, giggling and wavering just slightly. We arrived at the inn shortly after one in the morning.

“Shhh!” Millian whispered as we came in the door. “We don’t want Folian to hear us.”

We crept toward the stairs as stealthily as we could.

“Girls.” The voice made us jump, then cringe. Figures that he would be waiting for us. “You do realize that your room fee is due today?”

I’d long since learned to let Millian handle matters like this, so I kept my mouth shut and moved back as she took control of the situation.

“Yes, Folian,” she said. “And we still have nearly twenty-four hours to pay it.”

“Twenty-two hours and fifty-one minutes. I hope you can still afford it after drinking all night. I’d hate to have to put two pretty girls out on the street.”

“Ha,” I said. “You think we pay for our own drinks?”

The glare from Millian told me I should have stuck to my plan of keeping my mouth shut.

“No,” Folian said. “I don’t imagine you do. You know, I think we could work out an arrangement where you don’t have to pay for rooms either.”

Millian has always had the ability to drain all emotion from her voice, making it colder than ice. She did that now. “You’ll have your money tomorrow,” she said. “Good night, Folian.”

I wasn’t dumb, but I was a little naive, so it took me a second to catch on. “Oh!” I said. “You want sex! Sex for free rooms!”

“Let’s go, Angeli,” Millian said, pulling at my arm.

“Waitwaitwait,” I said. “Aren’t you with Helina? What does she think of this arrangement?”

For some reason, the question made Folian look like he ate something sour.

“Come on,” Millian said, pulling me up the stairs.

***Millian***

Folian didn’t show up in the common room at breakfast the next day, for which I was grateful. I couldn’t help but glare at Angeli across the table as we ate. It wasn’t just because of last night – actually, that had turned out rather well, as long as it didn’t get us evicted. No, part of the reason was because Angeli had the day off from her job and I didn’t. The other part was because she never seemed to show any of the lingering aftereffects of alcohol, whereas I wasn’t sure I could keep my breakfast down.

“Hey,” Angeli said around a mouthful of food. “So I think I’m gonna hang out in the forest today.”

“Going to visit your friend?”

Angeli paused with her fork halfway to her face. “How did you know about that?”

“You told me, last night. You know you can’t keep secrets. Even if you could, the food you’re stuffing in that pack would raise some suspicions.”

I couldn’t help a smile at the way she bounced up and down in excitement. “He’s so cute, and I almost have him eating from my hand, and I just want to take him home and-”

“No bringing him here,” I interrupted. “He’s a fox. He’d just as soon gnaw on your hand as take food from it.”

“You’re wrong, he’s sweet and different from all the other foxes.”

“Just be careful, Angeli.”

“I will.”

The sun glinting through the window told me it was time to get moving. I ignored my nausea and shoveled the rest of my breakfast into my mouth.

“Gotta go,” I said, standing.

“Have fun at work!” Angeli said.

I twisted my mouth at the sarcasm. “Thanks,” I said dryly.

“I was serious!”